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So this is odd....weird readings on the ST16

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Hey Gang,

My H arrived yesterday and due to work and weather I haven't had a chance to get her outside to a field to calibrate and maiden. so this afternoon I thought I'd spend sometime looking over the transmitter and getting acquainted with the camera and gimbal controls. In the past (since 87) I've built and flown helis and "Y" hexs that all required building. This being my first RTF I've done a LOT of research on multiple forums and YouTube and Vimeo. I mention this because I've seen or read about most of the problems people are experiencing. Some are noobs and some are defective parts...

When I first powered up the St16 and then the H, my camera wouldn't connect, so a little research and I found that powering up the H as soon as the Yuneec logo appears on the ST16 solved that problem.

I then got several "no GPS lock" warning which I associated to being inside .....waiting to see

But this is the one that has me wondering.... the altitude reading and the distance reading on the 16 were WTFO...alt was at 17' when the H was on an 18" ottoman, and the distance was 37' when I was less than 5' away from it. Now I'm hoping that this has something to do with where it had its original Comp Cal done and redoing the Cal in an open field corrects it. BUT this could certainly explain why some people have had issues landing their drones or even moving away from them when they enabled RTH....

Has anyone else experienced weird ST16 readings while indoors on the bench? If so did the H fly and read correctly once you got outside?

I'm praying that I got a solid one....I know Yuneec has been great taking care of peoples issues, but I for once, would like a product to perform as designed/advertised..... fingers crossed.


any insight is appreciated!

Peace
Anthony
 
I have not heard of those issues? It could very well be the need for a CCali and that you were inside with no GPS/Satellites! Let us know if getting her outside and Calibrated helps! And I likewise hope you have an Angel of an H! Fly safely!;)
 
I I agree with DC being inside with no GPS and no satellites is not good for the H. Keep an eye on it do you calibrations your accelerometer and the compass calibration . We'll see what happens then.
 
Any links for info on the accelerometer calibration procedures? I can't find anything on it other than where it's accessed on the 16, and do the acc first.

As a side note, I took the h out into my back yard, did not try to calibrate because of metal interferences... Pool, buried lines etc...
The readings were slightly better, but still off and varying... Hopefully calibrations will fix this issue.... I won't put light under the skids until the numbers reflect reality.....asking for trouble otherwise.
 
Go Watch Liz at Yuneec.com there are a bunch of videos there that you can watch
 
Put the H on a flat surface out side. Turn on the ST16 then TH. Once you have video go to the GPS right side of the screen. By now you have calibrated the compass, below that you will find the accelerometer push that. Don't touch or moe your bird till it completes the calibration. You are done hope this helps
 
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I know on my TH that the altimeter does drift quite a bit, but it gets reset to 0 when the motors are armed. After lift-off it still can drift a bit, when landing I've noticed it can be +/- 5-10 ft. Not a lot, but still concerning. Hasn't affected flying or landing, though.
 
Yes, make sure you do the calibrations before your 1st flight. The only real problem I ever had with my H was on the 1st flight where it refused to land (it did eventually land but VERY VERY Slowly). When it was back on the ground, the altitude on the ST16 was showing 37 feet.
 
Yes, make sure you do the calibrations before your 1st flight. The only real problem I ever had with my H was on the 1st flight where it refused to land (it did eventually land but VERY VERY Slowly). When it was back on the ground, the altitude on the ST16 was showing 37 feet.

Exactly my concern.... Shouldn't it read "0" ?!?
 
I did not calibrate before the 1st flight. After the 1st flight I did the Compass calibration and the ST16 showed '0' feet with the H on the Ground.
That is why a Out of Box compass calibration is so important, even though some disagree! better safe than sorry!:)
 
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Art...
I had problems with my H right out of the box.
Did the toilet bowl thing and wouldn't land..
Flew three flights total of 7 minutes and called Yuneec
They RMA'd it on June 9th, still waiting for it to come back..

In the meantime I played with the telemetry date of the flights and calibrations i did and found some weird date on google earth. The flight paths of Two of my flights seamed to be backwards as the paths showed opposite directions of actual flight.
On two "flights" the KMZ paths while on my desk in my office showed the H "Flying" inside the house and altitudes from -.09, -.59 to 1.40 feet. Maybe it was calibrating itself, but I find it strange that the patterns did not represent the actual actions of the craft.
 
I allow the copter to acclimate to the environment first, then power it up, wait and watch AGL estimate, reboot. It holds well after that. This requires patience, but every copter with a barometer has these issues.

Have done it 1000+ times with Arducopter particularly in the winter. The barometer is very sensitive to temp change. The H seems to be much more uncertain than say a Pixhawk.

It's NEVER going to stay at "0".
 
well none my custom built machines ever had telemetry so the fluctuation may be normal.... but at the price point some components could be shoddy at best.

What was your reasoning for rebooting?

Just an FYI, the price of the gimbal on the "y" was more than the complete H package....couple that with the crashes/flyaways, won't lands, etc... results in my being a little extra cautious...this one i didn't build.;)

 
well just back from CC and 3 short maidens....everything seemed to function as expected, wish the the radio allowed for expo. The slider is a nice idea, but true expo is a cinematographers best friend. Nice smooth easy movements when in close and full defection when needed (get home quick or loss of GPS lock)... other than that, if she holds up electronically she'll be a ton of fun and a money maker.

One odd observation....the temp here is around 80, the H ws in the car with me (boxed) for less than 5 mins. when I opened the box there was condensation on the top plastic housing of the main body. I thought somebody got happy at the packaging end of the plant because there was a Metric-F-Ton of silica pkgs in the Styrofoam box.....now I'm wondering if that was all there for a reason... (yes I threw out 6 of the 7 packages o_O)

Hey Glider, I'm sorry to read about your mishap....but that is just the kind of stuff I'm worried about.... you seem like you've been around too, and today's flight was one of many you logged on the H....So WTH? I can see DOA, or even faulty within the fist dozen of flights.....failures without reason is unacceptable. I love to hear how you male out.
 
well just back from CC and 3 short maidens....everything seemed to function as expected, wish the the radio allowed for expo. The slider is a nice idea, but true expo is a cinematographers best friend. Nice smooth easy movements when in close and full defection when needed (get home quick or loss of GPS lock)... other than that, if she holds up electronically she'll be a ton of fun and a money maker.

One odd observation....the temp here is around 80, the H ws in the car with me (boxed) for less than 5 mins. when I opened the box there was condensation on the top plastic housing of the main body. I thought somebody got happy at the packaging end of the plant because there was a Metric-F-Ton of silica pkgs in the Styrofoam box.....now I'm wondering if that was all there for a reason... (yes I threw out 6 of the 7 packages o_O)

Hey Glider, I'm sorry to read about your mishap....but that is just the kind of stuff I'm worried about.... you seem like you've been around too, and today's flight was one of many you logged on the H....So WTH? I can see DOA, or even faulty within the fist dozen of flights.....failures without reason is unacceptable. I love to hear how you male out.

Y6.....mmmmm. Details? And Heli's! Rob L from 3DR (formerly) has nearly talked me into building one so many times.

Oh you camera guys; I'm so jealous, never got into it much. Using servos to pick up and transport bottles of water, drop off food, Lidar, Sonar and things like have been my thing. I had a GoPro put mainly for FPV and taking videos just for fun without caring about settings, and then tried some mapping. Then I finally got serious and bought a Solo, two actually, returned both, but not because I didn't like them. Long story.... so I had this GPH4 sitting around, an X4 with a Tiny2 gimbal and decided it would be my camera platform. That is until I fried the GP and vtx. Oops. At that point in late April I finally became interested in the TH. It was lacking in sophistication compared to my Arducopter stuff, but then I realized it was exactly what I was looking for.
Hexa; check
360 camera: check
Folding landing gear: check
Fully integrated GCS with monitor and Android OS: check
READY TO FLY AND TAKE VIDEOS: double check

I don't need mission planning and all that other crap. Been there, done that. OA is a novelty IMO. Good planning and piloting for what I use the H for doesn't need OA. Only until full 360 deg scanning is available and affordable will I try it.

Why the reboot? Not sure if it does anything, but the barometer in mine still produces large errors after takeoff and landing the first time. Giving it more time to settle in and rebooting seems to make it more consistent. Of course on each motor start it zero's anyway (Yuneec must of realized the need for it), but regardless, until it "warms up" (or acclimates) the barometer goes wonky on mine. So now I let it "warm up" take off, watch the AGL, land and restart the motors.

You can change the channel settings for expo. I did it for the throttle hoping it would help with the twitching in GPS modes, but it's definitely a firmware issue. Nothing enough to complain more about though. Back to the expo. Be VERY careful messing with channel settings. The steps are with the ST16 on:
1) press channel settings
2) press Ok when warning pops up
3) A03 is for camera tilt, press it
4) press K2 (solid red button)
5) press Edit


There's your expo and rates for camera tilt. For pan, it's A04. Adjust expo to your liking, click on Save. Viola! Back out when done. If you somehow mess things up, there is a way to get settings back to default. I'm still learning my way around.


To me the H is an awesome machine. I simply love flying it with or without the camera. Crashing and other abnormal behavior is anathema to me. When something goes awry, I want to know every single detail why. So yes I went berserk after going home and analyzing the log. Virtually nothing made sense. My conclusion is the firmware has a bug that needs attention if the ascent angle is not constant (apparently not, don't know for sure). The H was flying beautifully; I was content, not thrilled about the batteries, but heck I have enough and know that a better one will fit. This crash really let me down.

Ok so Yuneec hasn't replied to my email. Admittedly I'm not too happy they haven't contacted me after two days, but it is what it is.
 

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